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Bob "Moviebob" Chipman / The Game Overthinker

A self-proclaimed "Z-list internet celebrity", Bob Chipman is a video game and movie critic who formerly hosted the shows Escape To The Movies, The Big Picture and Intermission on The Escapist, The Game Overthinker on his own blog, and now In Bob We Trust on Screw Attack. On The Game Overthinker, Bob plays the titular character, who analyses video games, their culture and industry through in-depth discussions. As more plot-like arcs developed, the Overthinker became an ally to Police Commissioner Bunnyface to deal with video game monsters slipping into the real world and other such villains.

Advertising Campaigns: The Overthinker flips out when he watches an Activision advert featuring Oliver North, an American soldier he considers to be a war criminal.

Also happened when he watched Nintendo's "I am Not A Gamer" campaign, but it caused him to realise you don't have to be a "gamer" to enjoy video games.

Bob actually launched his own, advertising his book "Super Mario Bros. 3: Brick By Brick" which is essentially a Let's Play in written format of Super Mario Bros. 3.

Berserk Button: He hates what he views as hardcore gamers, the "douchebag" generation introduced with the Playstation (although he likes the console), Xbox Live trolls, Michael Bay (but has since come to view him in a more favourable light), and any movies that do terrible jobs of adapting comic books to the big screen or make painfully immoral choices in their casting or stories.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: Video game characters and elements begin to do this after the debut of the Anti-Thinker, Bob interacting with familiar faces like the bald guy from Rygar.

Cerebus Syndrome: Some fans feel this way about the change in tone of the Overthinker when the Anti-Thinker plot was introduced, with the satirical story arcs apparently spoiling the seriousness of the Overthinker's topics.

Darker and Edgier: In some of his Overthinker episodes when it came to more serious topics.

Disney Death: Killed by the Anti-Thinker via a Torso with a View and fake blood, but is resurrected by Princess Rosalina. In the Robothinker arc, he was meant to have died by the Anti-Thinker's hands which would have led to the end of the world, but it was averted by the Omega Thinker.

Dull Surprise: After encountering his evil twin, elemental ninjas, and video game zombies, the appearance of a time traveller from the future and a renegade, apocalyptic robot has little effect on his sense of disbelief. The Omega Thinker lampshades this, and Bob responds with "It's been an interesting couple of months."

Elemental Powers: The Overthinker uses the Fire and Ice Flowers to use fire and ice attacks. He tries using the elemental gems he collects against Robothinker but they fail. These powers come with an Instant Costume Change.

The Exile: Unwillingly depowered and exiled to Wario's Woods by the Anti-Thinker. He trains himself in the wild and battles his nemesis to take back his show.

Fan Boy: Tries to ascend beyond this trope and looks down on the "hardcore gamers" who he perceives as gamers who want games to belong only to them and no change at all. Bob is unabashedly a fanboy of Nintendo and Mario, though he does point out the flaws of both.

Fast-Forward Gag: When it comes to large amounts of exposition that needs to be explained, Bob often resorts to playing a sped-up narration to cram it all in.

Genre Savvy: Takes a lot of events in his stride during his show. He uses his teleportation device the "right way" by using it to regain the magic gems, send Plasma Thinker to prison, and removes Robothinker's gem.

Guile Hero: Willing to cheat, compromise, and fight dirty to stop his enemies.

Implicit Prison: The Overthinker and Ivan are placed under house arrest by Commissioner Bunnyface and Senator Lieberson.

Killed Off for Real: Briefly murdered by the Anti-Thinker only to be resurrected by divine intervention. He was supposed to die in the original timeline of the Omegathinker's history, only to be saved by his pink-haired descendant. Killed again in Episode 98 by the Ultrathinker and sent to hell, but returns yet again.

Laser Blade: Uses a lightsaber Wii weapon to fight the Anti-Thinker. Turns out to be a dud thanks to Wario.

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Has a habit of doing this to anyone who he hates or disagrees with, usually hardcore gamers, and the "douchebag" generation of gamers introduced with the Playstation and Xbox Live, though most of the time he tries to justify his reasonings. Called out for his scathing of entire parts of society.

Rhymes on a Dime: Averted in an attempt to write a song whilst being housebound.

Ivan the Intern

The Overthinker's intern, his accountant's son, and Fairy Companion. He helps out the Overthinker and may backup his boss' points. He can be witty and bothered by the Overthinker's attitude, but remains dedicated to helping his employer. He finds Navi attractive, despite being an obvious parody of her.

A Day in the Limelight: Episode 76 was a Q&A dedicated to Ivan. Happens again when he becomes the host for Episode 83, teaming up with Dr. Beardo, whilst the Overthinker is fighting his enemies.

Ascended Extra: Appeared initially only in one episode but now serves as secondary protagonist in the Overthinker's story arcs.

Bad Ass: Ivan takes over Robothinker's body to aid his comrades in battle.

Friend on the Force: Possible averted at the end of Episode 85, when Bunnyface and Senator Lieberson's men break into the Overthinker's house to arrest Retrothinker upon realising he was the Necrothinker and more importantly that the Overthinker lied to him.

The Anti-Thinker / Broseph

The Overthinker's Evil Twin, the Anti-Thinker comes from the Antiverse. He banishes the Overthinker to Wario's Woods and temporarily takes over his show. He is sent by his Mysterious Employer to kill the Overthinker, leading to a climatic battle between the two. An idiotic douchebag, the Anti-Thinker loves all the things about gaming and culture that Bob hates. He appears as an identical twin of Bob, but his true form is a skull-faced humanoid with sickles for hands.

Back from the Dead: Revived by the Ultrathinker to get revenge on the Overthinker, but he is killed quickly by the Omega Thinker. He returned again as of Episode 87, busts Retrothinker out of confinement to aid Bob, becoming his reluctant ally.

Bad Ass: Defeated the Overthinker and sent him to Wario's Woods within a matter of moments and then took over his show for three months.

Chekhov's Gun: His dollar medal is salvaged by the Overthinker and later forged into the hero's sword.

Genre Blindness: His lack of knowledge regarding pop culture and tropes make him vulnerable to several of the Overthinker's attacks and references.

Heel–Face Turn: Takes one in Episode 87, freeing Retrothinker from prison and going with him to the Overthinker's house after the Ultrathinker destroyed the Antiverse.

Hero Killer: Was meant to have been had the Omega Thinker not intervened.

Hidden Depths: He knows a surprising amount about the French Revolution.

Anti-Thinker: Yeah. I know stuff.

As early as his second appearance, he was already presenting his analysis of fantasy escapism as a coping mechanism for nerds who feel marginalized by mainstream society, albeit couched in his simplistic and derogatory language. His anti-intellectualism is mostly an affectation; as the Overthinker's counterpart he could hardly be genuinely stupid. He's the Antithinker not because he's anti-thinking, but because he's the Thinker from the Antiverse.

Dumb Muscle: Bob compares them to Bebop and Rocksteady since they spend so much time celebrating their victory over the Overthinker rather than destroy him. Even the Anti-Thinker calls them both "dumber than a sack of doorknobs".

Retrothinker / Necrothinker

A 1980s counterpart to the Overthinker who hosted a TV show about video games. Excited to see how the video game industry would evolve in the 21st Century, he became a Human Popsicle until the time was right. However, he was awakened early after Pyrothinker destroyed the Sharkcade and found the future to be terrifying. He is corrupted by the Ultrathinker and becomes Necrothinker, who summons an army of undead video game characters to destroy all of modern gaming. He is healed by the Overthinker and becomes his flatmate.

Anti-Villain: As Necrothinker, who is a corrupt Retrothinker refusing to deal with reality and instead resorts to resurrecting zombified forgotten game characters to comfort himself.

Became Their Own Antithesis: As Necrothinker, Retrothinker becomes a cynical, hateful being who loses all optimism and hope for gaming and vows to destroy it entirely by bringing back dead franchises from his happier days.

Protagonist Journey to Villain: A short-term version. Retrothinker froze himself with the intent to waken in 2025 hoping to experience a golden age of gaming but woke early with the destruction of the Sharkcade. Bob and Ivan talked him down from committing suicide and Retrothinker left to find his place in the world, only to discover Sonic 06 and had a mental breakdown. The Ultrathinker than preyed on his nostalgia and hatred, transforming him into Necrothinker.

Sealed Good in a Can: Retrothinker is arrested and placed in a Cobalt Corp bunker until the authorities can figure out whether or not he truly destroyed Necrothinker. He is busted out by the Anti-Thinker.

Superpowered Evil Side: At first he is completely consumed by his darkness, but after being saved by the Overthinker, he can transform into the Necrothinker at will using the earth stone.

Supervillain Lair: The Necro Tower, created from the remains of the Sharkcade. Tragically ironic, since Retrothinker recorded his TV show in the building's basement.

Tragic Villain: Froze himself to awaken in a world of wonder, only to find it is a Crapsack World, all of his hopes and dreams of an innovated video game golden age have been dashed, and discovering what became of Sonic leads to his corruption into Necrothinker. Made worse considering he uses long forgotten video game characters as zombies and the Sharkcade ruins as his supervillain base.

Clogs Shoes / The Omega Thinker

A pink-haired man from the future, the Omega Thinker is the Overthinker's descendant and the last in a long line of Omega Thinkers. He was sent to destroy the Anti-Thinker and Robothinker to prevent the annihilation of mankind.

Robothinker

Robothinker is a robot who wiped out mankind in the future. He wields the last of the elemental gems, wielding the power of air. He is actually an advanced predator drone developed by Dr. Beardo, but when connected to Xbox Live for simulation training, he gained the mind of an Xbox Live troll and turned evil.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Robothinker was created by Dr. Beardo and other US military scientists as a predator drone powered by the air elemental gem. The military then get the idea to hook Robothinker up to Xbox Live to practice millions of simulations based on first person shooter games. Robothinker becomes obsessed with getting high scores, and begins to attack military bases. Stealth bombers destroy his drone body, but he rebuilds himself a new body, reconnects himself to Xbox Live and goes Skynet on the world, bringing about the end of mankind.

Artificial Human: Subverted. He is actually a super-intelligent US military predator drone powered by the air elemental gem. He rebuilt his body to a humanoid shape.

Chekhov's Gun: After the air gem is removed, Robothinker returns without a magical core. Ivan uses this to his advantage to take control of his body. His technology was also used to create the J.I.S.M. drones.

Curb-Stomp Battle: Against the Overthinker, and initially with the Anti-Thinker, Retrothinker and Ivan in the original timeline.

Welcome to Hell: Welcomes Bob when he ends up in hell after being slain by the Ultrathinker, and punishes him by giving him more fanmail to answer. When the Omegathinker rescues Bob, Phibb is pretty upset.

The Ultrathinker

The Big Bad of the show and The Chessmaster of the story arcs. Appears as a mysterious cloaked entity who dwells in another dimension, manipulating the characters in an attempt to destroy video games. He is referred to as "The Beast" til his identity is revealed.

Big Bad: Though he remains behind the scenes until the last story arc.

The Chessmaster: Manipulates the show's characters to further his own agenda, which is to materialise on Earth and destroy humanity and video games. Turns out he was responsible for the 1983 market crash, the failure of the Dreamcast, and the birth of the "douchebag" gamers on Xbox Live.

Cosmic Entity: Became one after being flung into deep space and exposed to cosmic radiation.

Deal with the Devil: Turns out even the Devil himself is this guy's associate. He made a deal with Retrothinker to resurrect undead video game characters.

I Want My Jetpack: As a scientificaly-enhanced ape, he helped improve electro-video technology and hoped it would lead humanity into a new era of development. After becoming a cosmic entity he discovered humanity had created video games from his creations, vowed to destroy gaming in retribution, and punish humanity for their lack of vision.

Psychic Powers: Develops them to be able to see across the universe without leaving deep space. Also used them to try and destroy gaming across the years.

The Captain

A character introduced in Episode 99. A semi-corporeal being of "video energy", he summons Bob to heaven to speak with him. Wears a familiar letterman jock jacket and appears to be made from space itself.

Foreshadowing: His letterman jacket was implied to be linked to Bob's powers back in Episode 50. But the Anti-Thinker interrupted Bob before he could explain things.

Other Characters

Senator Jack Lieberson

A Ninja who is the US Senator of Boston and Massachusetts. He is of the Retsudoki ninja clan and is apparently a master of ninjutsu. Another ally to the Overthinker, who supported Lieberson in his campaign.

Corrupt Politician: Accused of being in league with Pyrothinker by the press. Becomes an Obstructive Bureaucrat as of Episode 89, forming a ninja-based parody of the American Tea Party to shut down gaming in the country. Turns out to be The Dragon for the Ultrathinker, and a disguise for Dr. Beardo.

Threat Backfire: Lieberson sends an army of private mercenary ninjas called Cobalt Corp to fight Robothinker, but he destroys all of them.

Dr. Beardo

The scientist who built the Robothinker, Dr. Beardo seeks to atone for his role in mankind's destruction and is sent by Senator Lieberson to aid the Overthinker. He has a beard as you might have guessed.

The Atoner: Aids Bob and co. to put an end to Robothinker. This turns out to be part of the plan to construct the J.I.S.M. drones from Robothinker's technology.

Chris Chipman

Bob's brother who acts as his cameraman. He has a minor onscreen role in the Anti-Thinker arc when he is sent to explore Wario's Woods but is attacked by the Anti-Thinker.

Butt Monkey: Sent to Wario's Woods by his brother and then spends the next three months recording him with Bob not even noticing his presence. Chris calls Bob out on this and Bob immediately apologises.

Sibling Team: Bob and Chris develop the show together, with Chris acting as cameraman and playing Bob's opponents in fight scenes.

Door Guy

A member of Senator Lieberson's Cobalt Core, who is assigned to guard the Overthinker whilst he is housebound. Speaks with a German accent and is not too fond of the Wii.

Affably Evil: Pretty sociable and chummy with Bob even though they consider him an idiot. He personally drops his duty to rant about Bob putting Wii Sports on his top ten list of seventh generation games.

A bald wise man from Rygar who gives the Overthinker the motivation to battle the Anti-Thinker, and gives him a lightsaber Wii Remote as a weapon. Turns out to be Wario in disguise and the ruler of Wario's Woods.

Fanboy: Revealed to play the Mario games and geeks out when the Overthinker mentions the Tanuki suit was making a comeback. He also makes a reference to the old man in the original Legend of Zelda game.

Jerk Ass: Apparently doesn't want to be on the show nor does he think he has any nostalgic value for the Overthinker. And he gets really ticked off when the Overthinker makes a reference to Doctor Who.

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